Nikki Sixx Says It Bothers Him That Led Zeppelin And Black Sabbath Had The Same Sound

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx opened up about his thoughts on Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, saying they were using the same sounds during his recent interview with SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation L.A. Invasion. Also, he shared his ideas about the young generation bands and contemporary music.

Led Zeppelin hit the rock stage in 1968 with their unique sounds, lyrics, and talented band members. In the same year, another English band Black Sabbath was founded. However, their style was completely different from each other. Thus, Led Zeppelin became a milestone rock band, and Black Sabbath popularized heavy metal music.

However, according to Sixx, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath had the same kick-drum and guitar sounds in their works even though they were the two different genre’s pioneers. This similarity bothers Sixx, but he also admitted that their music has always been exciting and inspiring despite using the same sounds over and over for years.

Furthermore, Mötley Crüe bassist criticized young generation bands by highlighting that their works are overproduced, and they are losing their uniqueness because of technology and striving to get the perfect sound. He added that people liked early records of Great Van Fleet and The Struts because they were innocent, raw, and sincere.

Sixx said in his interview that:

“Some of the stuff that’s out right now is so good but it’s also so overproduced. I don’t feel that when I listen to any genre music or just in the rock world, Black Sabbath had the same kick-drum sound like Led Zeppelin, the same kick-drum sound as Aerosmith the same guitar sound — they all had the same guitar sound. It bothers me that so much stuff sounds the same, yet it’s also really good — really good hooks, really aggressive, really exciting.

So when I hear some younger bands — like, people will throw on Greta Van Fleet, for example. What everybody liked about that is it was just simple and raw and passionate, that first E.P. The same with The Struts and stuff like that. There was some innocence to it. I think that there’s so much technology out there that we can fall prey to making it perfect. And I would love to make maybe some imperfect music.

Therefore, it seems that Nikki Sixx wanted to draw attention to some legendary bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Aerosmith’s choice to produce their best-selling records following a similar path. Also, contemporary music is becoming more and more dependent on technology.